Exhall Grange School
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Exhall Grange School is a
special school Special education (known as special-needs education, aided education, exceptional education, alternative provision, exceptional student education, special ed., SDC, or SPED) is the practice of educating students in a way that accommodates th ...
located in Ash Green just outside
Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its ...
in
Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...
, England. The school meets the needs of children and young people age from 2 to 19 years with
physical disability A physical disability is a limitation on a person's physical functioning, mobility, dexterity or stamina. Other physical disabilities include impairments which limit other facets of daily living, such as respiratory disorders, blindness, epileps ...
,
visual impairment Visual impairment, also known as vision impairment, is a medical definition primarily measured based on an individual's better eye visual acuity; in the absence of treatment such as correctable eyewear, assistive devices, and medical treatment†...
, complex medical needs, and social, communication and interaction difficulties. Opened in 1951 as a school for
visually impaired Visual impairment, also known as vision impairment, is a medical definition primarily measured based on an individual's better eye visual acuity; in the absence of treatment such as correctable eyewear, assistive devices, and medical treatment†...
pupils, Exhall Grange was the first school to cater exclusively for partially sighted children. It later widened its remit to include pupils with other disabilities, and became a grammar school in 1960. The school was a boarding school for many years, but significantly reduced its boarding facilities during the 1990s and 2000s as its role as a special school changed, and it is now a day school. In 2001 Exhall Grange began to share its campus with RNIB Pears Centre for Specialist Learning (then known as RNIB Rushton School and Children's Home), an
RNIB The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) is a UK charity offering information, support and advice to almost two million people in the UK with sight loss. History The RNIB was founded by Thomas Rhodes Armitage, a doctor who had eye ...
school which relocated there from Northamptonshire. A children's hospice also occupies part of the site. Exhall Grange was the first special school to be awarded science college status in 2003, and celebrated its Diamond & Platinum Jubilee years in 2011 and 2021 respectively, although no official celebrations were held for its platinum jubilee due to the
COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
pandemic and Britain being under its third national lockdown.


History


Early years

Exhall Grange School was established in 1951 on the site of a former Second World War
army base A military base is a facility directly owned and operated by or for the military or one of its branches that shelters military equipment and personnel, and facilitates training and Military operation, operations. A military base always provides ...
, and began life with twelve pupils. The school originally specialised in teaching pupils with visual impairment, and was the first purpose-built school for partially sighted children to be opened in the United Kingdom. Among its features was specially designed lighting to help pupils read and navigate their way around more easily. The school later began to extend its facilities and to enrol students with other disabilities, while in 1960 a
grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...
department was added to enable disabled students from across the United Kingdom to attain a grammar school level of education. It was, for many years, predominantly a boarding school with pupils attending from across the United Kingdom, and it was regarded as being among the best in its field. Its reputation as a leading school for educating visually impaired students was established by its then headmaster,
George Marshall George Catlett Marshall Jr. (December 31, 1880 – October 16, 1959) was an American army officer and statesman. He rose through the United States Army to become Chief of Staff of the US Army under Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry ...
. The concept of Exhall Grange had originally been his, and he was one of its founding members of staff. After a brief spell as deputy head, he became head in 1953. Marshall would later achieve international recognition for his expertise on the education and welfare of those with sight loss, and received the OBE in 1976. Also in 1976 the school celebrated its Silver Jubilee. In 1999 former students from the school paid for a plaque to be dedicated to him at Exhall Grange. The school underwent an extensive redevelopment programme during the 1960s, which saw many of the original structures replaced with modern buildings. George Marshall also invited artists to work with children from Exhall Grange to encourage them to develop an appreciation of art, and several sculptures were commissioned by him. In 2009 a sculpture created for the school by
Barbara Hepworth Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth (10 January 1903 – 20 May 1975) was an English artist and sculptor. Her work exemplifies Modernism and in particular modern sculpture. Along with artists such as Ben Nicholson and Naum Gabo, Hepworth was a leadi ...
in 1964 sold at auction for £37,200. Following George Marshall's retirement in 1981, he was succeeded as headmaster by Richard Bignell. Bignell – himself visually impaired – recognised the benefits for the school and its students of using computer technology in a teaching environment. During the 1980s Exhall Grange became an early user of the Vincent Workstation, a system that enabled
braille Braille (Pronounced: ) is a tactile writing system used by people who are visually impaired, including people who are Blindness, blind, Deafblindness, deafblind or who have low vision. It can be read either on Paper embossing, embossed paper ...
to be translated into speech and printed text. Bignell continued to raise the school's profile throughout his tenure as its headmaster, building on the work of his predecessor. He made significant changes to the style of education it offered, moving away from the grammar-school based system so that pupils began to study the same curriculum offered by mainstream comprehensive schools. He retired in 2005. In 1985
British Prime Minister The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern p ...
Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...
apologised to the school after mistakenly criticising members of its teaching staff who belonged to the
National Union of Teachers The National Union of Teachers (NUT; ) was a trade union for school teachers in Education in England, England, Education in Wales, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. It was a member of the Trades Union Congress. In March 2017, NU ...
for taking
strike action Strike action, also called labor strike, labour strike, or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to Labor (economics), work. A strike usually takes place in response to grievance (labour), employee grievance ...
. It was NUT members at the nearby Exhall School who had struck. In a
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
statement on 18 March, Thatcher said, "I very much regret any embarrassment or offence to the teachers of this school which may have followed from my statement last Thursday. The misunderstanding arose because publicity material from the National Union of Teachers was in error. It was Exhall school which was affected; Exhall Grange school was not."


Changing role

In 1985 Exhall Grange was the largest school for visually impaired students in the United Kingdom, but in more recent years, a greater number of children with single disabilities have gradually been included in mainstream education, and Exhall Grange's role as a special school has adapted as a consequence. Many of its students now have multiple disabilities, while the residential facilities were phased out over the 1990s and 2000s. The school now caters largely for pupils living in the local vicinity, with the main catchment area being the northern part of
Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...
, including
Bedworth Bedworth ( or locally ) is a market town and unparished area in the borough of Nuneaton and Bedworth, Warwickshire, England.OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) : It is situated between Coventry, 6 miles (9.5 km) to the south, a ...
and
Nuneaton Nuneaton ( ) is a market town in the borough of Nuneaton and Bedworth in northern Warwickshire, England, close to the county border with Leicestershire and West Midlands County.OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) : Nuneaton's ...
. Although it has a Coventry postal address, it is under the control of Warwickshire Education Authority. In 1998, following an inspection from the
Office for Standards in Education The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a non-ministerial department of His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament. Ofsted is responsible for inspecting a range of educational institutions, includ ...
(OFSTED), the school was awarded Beacon status. OFSTED gave Exhall Grange outstanding report in March 2009. In 2001 the school celebrated its Golden Jubilee. A special book by David Howe was published; titled, ''Exhall Grange School: The First Fifty years''. In June 2002, RNIB Pears Centre for Specialist Learning (then known as RNIB Rushton School and Children's Home), an
RNIB The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) is a UK charity offering information, support and advice to almost two million people in the UK with sight loss. History The RNIB was founded by Thomas Rhodes Armitage, a doctor who had eye ...
school based in
Kettering Kettering is a market and industrial town in North Northamptonshire, England. It is located north of London and north-east of Northampton, west of the River Ise, a tributary of the River Nene. The name means "the place (or territory) of Ket ...
,
Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...
, relocated to the Exhall Grange campus. However, the two schools remain independent organizations. Also in 2002, researchers from the
University of Warwick The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands (county), West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded i ...
worked with pupils at the school in a series of experiments that involved using
ferret The ferret (''Mustela furo'') is a small, Domestication, domesticated species belonging to the family Mustelidae. The ferret is most likely a domesticated form of the wild European polecat (''Mustela putorius''), evidenced by their Hybrid (biol ...
s to help discover how blind children perceive space. In July 2003, Exhall Grange became the first special school to achieve specialist science college status. It was redesignated as a science college in November 2007, and in September 2008 was granted special educational needs (physical and sensory) specialist status. In 2004 a syndicate of dinner ladies at the school won £2.4 million on the National Lottery draw. March 2007 saw the commencement of a three-year building and modernisation programme to improve the overall condition of the school. In 2009 the school opened a new gymnasium and the old gym was demolished. Permission for a new gym had been granted in 1999, and the school launched a £1.5 million appeal to build it. In June 2009 work got under way on building the region's first
hospice Hospice care is a type of health care that focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's pain and symptoms and attending to their emotional and spiritual needs at the end of life. Hospice care prioritizes comfort and quality of life by ...
dedicated to the care of young children. Zoe's Place would offer one-to-one palliative and
respite care __NOTOC__ Respite care is planned or emergency temporary care provided to caregivers of a child or adult. Respite programs provide planned short-term and time-limited breaks for families and other unpaid caregivers of children with a developmenta ...
, and
terminal Terminal may refer to: Computing Hardware * Terminal (electronics), a device for joining electrical circuits together * Terminal (telecommunication), a device communicating over a line * Computer terminal, a set of primary input and output dev ...
care for children up to the age of five who have life-limiting illnesses and special complex needs. An appeal to raise £650,000 to help fund the building of the hospice was launched in March 2008, and it was scheduled to open in Spring 2010. In Autumn 2009 a coach hired by Exhall Grange for a student trip to France was targeted by two
Afghan Afghan may refer to: *Something of or related to Afghanistan, a country in Southern-Central Asia *Afghans, people or citizens of Afghanistan, typically of any ethnicity ** Afghan (ethnonym), the historic term applied strictly to people of the Pas ...
teenage stowaways as the school party prepared to return to the United Kingdom. The boys crawled into the coach's engine while the vehicle was parked in a supermarket car park in
Calais Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's prefecture is its third-largest city of Arras. Th ...
, but the duo were discovered by the driver and absconded. In December 2010, John Truman, Richard Bignell's successor as headteacher, left the post, and a new headteacher, Christine Marshall, was appointed in March 2011. The school celebrated its Diamond Jubilee in 2011. Many celebrations were planned, including the burying of a time capsule in the school grounds during the summer term, and a Celebration Day on 21 July. Staff, students and past students held a 1950s-style street party to celebrate the school's 60th anniversary. Past students included four of the original.


House system


Past

In its days as a
boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...
pupils at Exhall Grange were placed into one of six
houses A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...
, each of which had approximately 50 boarding and day pupils ranging in age from 5 to 18. After the rebuilding programme, the school was unusual in that all meals were taken in houses, as opposed to a central dining system; however, prior to this, there was a central kitchen and dining room, with two meal sittings. The boys' houses were named Canterbury, Lancaster, Warwick and Windsor. The girls' houses were Avon and Kenilworth. A seventh house, York House, was originally also a boys' house, but was closed as part of the rebuilding logistics, and the boys were distributed between the remaining four. An eighth house, Malvern, was used for staff accommodation. Beginning in September 1988 the house system was changed so that pupils were accommodated in various age groups. Canterbury and Lancaster housed juniors and those in the first, second and third years. Warwick housed fourth and fifth year pupils and Windsor accommodated boys from the sixth form. Avon and Kenilworth became Avon Junior and Avon Senior. Three superhouses were then created for the purpose of sporting activities. These were named Phoenix, Wyvern and Yale. As the school's role changed during the 1990s and 2000s, much of the boarding accommodation was gradually phased out. Warwick and Windsor were the first houses to close in the early 1990s, followed later by Avon. Lancaster and Canterbury (by then known collectively as Lancaster) were the final houses to close when the school ceased to be a boarding school in 2004. The only boarding accommodation offered on the site now is at Rushton Hall.


Present

Today the houses are Easter; Pink, Edison; Green, Hawking; Orange and Ingram; Purple. They are named after people; Melanie Easter,
Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventio ...
, Stephen Hawking and
Sam Ingram Sam Ingram (born 21 August 1985) is a British Paralympic Judo competitor who represented the United Kingdom at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing and at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London. Personal history Ingram was born in 1985. Origina ...
.


Notable people


Headteachers


Faculty

*John Huddleston, a former housemaster and teacher, who worked at the school from Easter 1952 until his retirement at Christmas 1988, and is the school's longest serving member of staff, a duration of nearly 37 years. He died in 2006. * Sheila Carey
MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...
, who represented the United Kingdom at the 1968 and
1972 Summer Olympics The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and commonly known as Munich 1972 (german: München 1972), was an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972. ...
has taught at the school since 1987 (part-time). *The Husband of Lynda Jones; a teaching assistant currently working at the school, is an actor and singer, most notably for his role in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (uncredited). *Michael Cauchi, an
RAF Bomber Command RAF Bomber Command controlled the Royal Air Force's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. Along with the United States Army Air Forces, it played the central role in the strategic bombing of Germany in World War II. From 1942 onward, the British bo ...
veteran of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, who taught at the school from 1952. He was a former Chairman of the Malta George Cross Island Association, and recipient of the Polish Cross of Valour and the Order of Warsaw for his role in the
Warsaw airlift The Warsaw airlift or Warsaw air bridge was a British-led operation to re-supply the besieged Polish resistance Home Army (AK) in the Warsaw Uprising against Nazi Germany during the Second World War, after nearby Soviet forces chose not to come to ...
, which aided the Polish Resistance during the 1944 Battle of Warsaw. He died in October 2015.


Alumni

*Paul Bowler, author of the science fiction novel ''Frozen in Time''. *Adrian Dilworth, former President of
UNISON In music, unison is two or more musical parts that sound either the same pitch or pitches separated by intervals of one or more octaves, usually at the same time. ''Rhythmic unison'' is another term for homorhythm. Definition Unison or per ...
. * Melanie Easter, Paralympic swimmer *Ian Francis, founder and CEO of The VIP Lounge, an organization that provides help and support to visually impaired people *Tony Giles, author and travel writer * Anthony Hamilton, athlete who won gold in the 800m and 1500m at the 1988 Paralympic Games. *
Sam Ingram Sam Ingram (born 21 August 1985) is a British Paralympic Judo competitor who represented the United Kingdom at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing and at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London. Personal history Ingram was born in 1985. Origina ...
, Paralympic judo competitor * Ryan Kelly, actor who plays the role of Jack 'Jazzer' McCreary in Radio 4's ''
The Archers ''The Archers'' is a BBC radio drama on BBC Radio 4, the corporation's main spoken-word channel. Broadcast since 1951, it was famously billed as "an everyday story of country folk" and is now promoted as "a contemporary drama in a rural settin ...
''. * Heather Millar, Paralympic swimmer *Ian Moore, Poet and Author of 'Poems, Beans and Chips!' *
Noel Thatcher Noel Thatcher is a British Paralympic runner who represented the United Kingdom at six Paralympic Games between 1984 and 2004, collecting a total of five gold medals. His two career highlights are winning gold and setting a world record at Bar ...
, Paralympic athlete


See also

*
Jordanstown Schools Jordanstown Schools is a school for deaf children and children with visual impairments, including blindness. It is based in Jordanstown, north of Belfast, Northern Ireland. Despite Presbyterian and Anglican roots, it is now non-denominational. ...
*
New College Worcester New College Worcester (or NCW; formerly RNIB New College) is an independent boarding and day school for students, aged 11–19, who are blind or partially sighted. It caters for around 80 students. It is located in the city of Worcester, England ...
*
Royal Blind School The Royal Blind School is a specialist day and boarding school in Edinburgh, Scotland that was established in 1793 and run by the charity, Royal Blind. The school caters for pupils aged 3 to 19 who are blind or partially sighted, and has faci ...


Notes


References


External links


Exhall Grange Official WebsiteExhall Grange School's page on Warwickshire County Council website2006 Ofsted Report
(PDF document)
Information about RNIB Pears Centre for Specialist Learning
{{coord, 52, 27, 21, N, 1, 30, 22, W, display=title Schools for the blind in the United Kingdom Special schools in Warwickshire Educational institutions established in 1951 1951 establishments in England * Community schools in Warwickshire